Posted by: matthew | February 16, 2009

my first post-op visit

I have been waiting for this day for 1 week and 4 days now.  I finally get to see my leg again, and more importantly I get to see the wound!  but when it came time to drive…excuse me, get driven to the doctors, I started getting nervous.  it has been an odd few days.  On Wednesday night I woke up in the middle of the night with a twitching or fluttering feeling in the calf.  Thought nothing of it, but when I woke up Ikept hearing my doctors voice in my head “when i sewed it together the first time i moved your ankle the stitching came un-done so I had to overlap the tendon…” Wait could that fluttering be the stitches coming undone? called the doctors office, the PA told me that it is possible but if I am not in pain and running a fever to not be worried.  so Friday rolls along, Friday the 13th.  while getting my coffee ready in the morning my crutch hits a small drop of water on the floor and slips out.  Its the right crutch, my bad leg, so what does Matthew do?  you guessed it plant the foot to keep from falling.  OH S*&% pulled the leg up after maybe a second or two, started sweating and got nervous and scared but i waited for a minute…no pain…a little sore…didn’t hear a pop…think I am alright. WHEW I am seeing the doctor Monday I’ll wait till then to talk to him.  Spent most of the day Friday in my wheelchair (am I the only one that rented a wheelchair for my NWB time?)  So as Monday 3:30 approaches i am getting nervous that he’ll take the splint off and look and say let’s start over

Monday 4:00 PM doc comes in I tell him my concerns.  To put anyone else’s mind at ease he did tell me that to re-rupture at this point it would take quite a bit of stress or trauma to the tendon.  Looks at the wound does a Thompson test and BINGO! the foot moves.  The tendon is still there. He told me the wound looks great no evidence of infection I went from a splint to a fiberglass cast for two more weeks and we will see from there.  I still have to plan on more or less 6 weeks no weight bearing and then probably 2 weeks after that to start PT.  The way he had to overlap the tendons he is still expecting a 100% recovery.  So the next visit is 3-2-09 (my oldest daughters b-day) and by then i will be almost 4 full weeks post-op and that much closer to weight bearing. 

And for the wound, I couldn’t hardly see it the guy has tape all over it that he won’t take off till next time i see him.  Here’s to a safe and speedy recovery to everyone!!  emphasis on safe.  I had to laugh the guy that put the cast on me was in the room most of time hearing me stress over re-rupturing he told me the story of some guy that wouldn’t listen to doctors orders he had to have surgery to repair the AT 3 times before he finally gave in and obeyed.  That WON’T be me

Responses

Matthew, this is my 6th day in the cast (no operation) and I’ve had the fluttering/twitching feeling over the past few days. Mine is worst right when I get up, especially if I rest my cast on the ground as I grope around for all my stuff. It’s almost like a cramp. It’s right at the lower part of my calf, which is a little weird since my tear was just above my ankle.
Change in blood flow? Healing pains?

Schmeck,

I’m not matthew, but this is normal…this started for me within 48 hours of rupture and is just now starting to go away at 7 wks 1 day post op…the doc tells me this is because of change in blood flow…If you are elevating like I did, three pillows, nearly 99% of the time, you will feel this when you lower your leg…

Good luck!!!

Matthew, I went through the same twitching as you did. Within 30 mins of falling asleep, there would be a violent twitch (dorsiflexion) of my foot which really felt like I had torn through the stitches. The pain was really intense. I immediately popped a vike and that did the trick. But I was totally worried, so I called my doc who said it was normal (but didn’t give a reason why).

The other type of “fluttering” that you describe happened to me the other day (I’m 2 weeks post-op), I took my foot out of the cam walker to wash it and it was just involuntarily fluttering/shaking. Didn’t hurt, but looked weird. I’m hoping this is just normal. Anyone else experience this? I was thinking of posting it on my blog.

Matthew, You are hilarious! Thanks for sharing your story as it made me laugh. Seriously, it sounds like you are doing great and your recovery is going well. I have had the same kinds of thoughts about re-rupturing the AT but so far all is well.

Great post! Thanks for sharing. 3 AT tears!?!?!?! You think you would learn a lesson after the first one let alone the second. All the best!

thanks or the support folks, everything i have read about twitches and spasms seem normal but now that i am in a cast it feels like the foot is falling asleep i assume that is normal too. this entire ordeal is just odd…oh well heres to a speedy and safe recovery!

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